• Gerd Leuchs
  • Alexey V. Andrianov
  • Elena A. Anashkina
  • Alina A. Manshina
  • Peter Banzer
  • Markus Sondermann

Concentrating light strongly calls for appropriate polarization patterns of the focused light beam and for up to a full 4πsolid angle geometry. Focusing on the extreme requires efficient coupling to nanostructures of one kind or another via cylindrical vector beams having such patterns, the details of which depend on the geometry and property of the respective nanostructure. Cylindrical vector beams can not only be used to study a nanostructure, but also vice versa. Closely related is the discussion of topics such as the ultimate diffraction limit, a resonant field enhancement near nanoscopic absorbers, as well as speculations about nonresonant field enhancement, which, if it exists, might be relevant to pair production in vacuum. These cases do require further rigorous simulations and more decisive experiments. While there is a wide diversity of scenarios, there are also conceptually very different models offering helpful intuitive pictures despite this diversity.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1842–1851
Number of pages10
JournalACS Photonics
Volume9
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - 15 Jun 2022

    Research areas

  • field enhancement, focusing, light-matter interactions, nonlinear optics, quantum optics

    Scopus subject areas

  • Biotechnology
  • Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials
  • Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics
  • Electrical and Electronic Engineering

ID: 96622683